I am a proud member of three bookclubs and for 2015 I’m going to make a blogging pledge to review all the titles I read in conjunction with them. Along the way I’ll talk about my observations of things that work well in book clubs and hopefully share some good books with you.
The club I’ve been in for the longest (about 4 years) is the Braille and Talking Book Library (BTBL) club. It’s made up mostly of library patrons, has somewhere between six and nine participants depending on the book and day, and meets monthly. Individuals offer to “host” a title and they are then responsible for developing discussion questions and leading the discussion, which lasts for two hours. Books are typically lined up 2-3 months in advance. The only rule is that the book has to be available for audio download. Oh, and we don’t read depressing books in December.
You don’t need to be visually impaired to join in. One thing I really like about this club is that it’s not stuffy – heck yes we’ll read a John Grisham book on occasion. And we love a good animal story.
The January title for the BTBL club is A Canticle for Leibowitz.
The second book club I belong to is the Plum Dragon club, a book club of two named after me and my friend Dragon. It’s two and a half years old. We’re each reading a royal biography and I chose “Nicholas and Alexandra” by Robert K. Massie about the last Russian royal family. I’m about a third of the way through. She’s still pondering her pick but is leaning toward someone British.
And finally, last fall I joined a staff book club where I work. This one has a discovery bent. Instead of choosing a single title the group chooses a genre and everyone picks their own book. For January we’re reading memoirs. I chose “Through the Narrow Gate” by Karen Armstrong. It’s her autobiography about joining, and 7 years later leaving, a convent during the 1960’s.
Plum Librarian LLC 